Europe's Challenges in the Wider Indo-Pacific
hosted by Professor
Michael Leigh
Paola Pampaloni
European External Action Service, Brussels
Paola Pampaloni is Deputy Managing Director for the Asia and Pacific Department at the European External Action Service.
Pampaloni has 28 years of experience working for the EU Institutions. She joined the European Commission in 1993 in the Directorate General for External Relations as desk officer responsible for political relations and financial assistance to Central European countries which had applied for EU membership in the 1990s. She was part of the EU negotiating team for Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia during the 5th Enlargement process. From April 2000 until February 2014 Pampaloni held several managerial positions in DG Enlargement and in the Directorate for the Western Balkans, and was responsible for the political relations and enlargement process with North Macedonia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In March 2014 she moved to the European External Action Service (EEAS) as Head of Division for Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, in the Asia and Pacific Department. She was EU chief negotiator for the EU-Afghanistan Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development, and in January 2017 was appointed to her current position as Director/ Deputy Managing Director in EEAS for the Asia and Pacific Department. She has also worked with the United Nations Development Programme in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1989-1991) and as international lawyer in a private Italian Law firm (1991-1993).
Pampaloni holds a degree in Law from the University of Genoa, Italy and a Master in International Relations (1986, Florence, Italy).
